18's to 19's--ride quality and speed?
 

I have decided on the style of wheel I want to buy, but still unsure on what size. I currently have the stock 18's and I would hate to sacrifice the ride performance any further (specifically the bounce) for looks. However, I'm having a hard time deciding because the 19's look so good. I may wind up buying another suspension kit, but for the time being it will remain stock.

Is the ride difference that noticable for those who made the switch from 18's to 19's? Was there much of a difference in bottom end speed/accerleration due to the larger wheel mass? Thank you! :)

No real change in ride comfort, but the car feels a little heavier with the heavier wheels. I drove my friends Track back to back with mine yesterday, and thats when I really noticed the difference. If you are coming from a performance/touring, probably no performance penalty though, only from track.

yeah and I noticed the difference between my heavy 18s and the light forged 18s.

but 19s in the same rims would have only added like 2 lbs each, still alot less than I started with, so it depends what brand of rim you get. a forged 19 will be lighter than a 18 non forged.

Thanks for the replies. I actually will be buying a forged wheel, so I did not consider how it would ride with a lighter wheel. Anyone else have any opinions?

Even if the 19s are very light weight, they may have a higher polar moment of inertia. There will be another 1/2" of radius further out from the center point of the wheel. That distributes mass slightly further out. The higher polar moment of inertia means it takes more effort to spin the larger wheel because of more mass distributed further out from the center of rotation.

The difference may be negligible but it might still be noticeable, especially if you go to wider tires. Wider tires mean more mass at the outside edge, as well. Very light weight larger rims helps counteract the added mass along the outside of the wheel/tire, but there are so many factors to consider, depending on the differences in wheels and tires.

My car feels about the same with the 19's, the only thing i really noticed was that the ride is way smoother compared to the factory tires. I'm sure that has something to do with the high amount of cupping on the factory crappy tires. I really wish either Nissan or Bridgestone would step up to the plate on those pos tires.